Just Desserts, March into Merivale

Having just dessert for dinner sounds like one of the greatest things ever so I was super excited to go to "Just Desserts" - a March into Merivale event where a handful of Merivale restaurants showcase some of their finest desserts for the sweet-tooths in Sydney. Entry ($45) also includes 6 tokens, which you can redeem for desserts and/or drinks within the event.

Mini fried ice cream, butterscotch

I'd sussed out what some of the offerings were prior to the event so when we arrived, we made a beeline straight for the mini fried ice creams at the Mr Wong stand. The fried ice cream was super popular (no surprise there!) so there was a short wait while batches upon batches of ice cream were fried to order. We eventually made our way out of the throng with our prize in hand, and dug in past the crispy batter to reveal a vanilla ice cream centre. I found some parts of the fried ice cream a little too cakey from the coating, but I think I could just about drink that amazing butterscotch sauce!

Hot banana, nutella and salted caramel spring roll, freeze dried raspberry powder

Another popular item was the hot banana, nutella and salted caramel spring roll from Ms G's. Again, this was fried to order in batches but it meant we got a freshly fried spring roll scattered with the red raspberry powder. This was a surprise favourite of mine as it wasn't too sweet and the banana, nutella and salted caramel flavours worked really well together.

White peach, black figs, yellow box honey, orange caramel sauce

American Diner Degustation at Mad Cow (March into Merivale)

Yes boys and girls, it's that time of year again! March into Merivale kicked off a couple of weeks ago, offering a variety of food and booze events (including the $33 meal deals) in the ever-expanding Merivale empire. With so many to choose from, it was hard to decide and these events were selling out like hotcakes! I was lucky enough to snag a spot at the American Diner Degustation with some other awesome peeps and we eagerly awaited a meal full of American diner classics in a room decked our with US flags and ketchup and mustard squeeze bottles.

Corn and cheese quesadillas

We start things off in southern USA with the Amuse Bouche of corn and cheese quesadillas. It's not just corn and cheese in there though - there's also some red peppers and guacamole - and with only one piece each it's gone before we know it. Bring on the next course!

Mad Cow chopped salad with Spencer Gulf prawns

sushi e, Sydney (March Into Merivale)

There really is such thing as a free meal! Thanks to the Tweet to Eat competition as part of March Into Merivale, I was lucky enough to score a free voucher to eat at one of nine Merivale restaurants offering $33 lunches and dinners, which include a main meal and a glass of wine or beer.

Deciding which restaurant to go was probably the hardest part, even with the help of the $33 menus available for viewing on the website. We ended up at sushi e, located in the Establishment building of the Merivale empire, and were seated on stools at a marble bar surrounding the sushi chefs, which allowed us to watch head chef Nobuyuki Ura in action.

We started off with a steaming bowl of miso soup (included in the $33 menu), which was very welcome on this dreary, rainy evening. The broth was more bland than I'm used to, and in the soup was deep fried tofu, spring onions and mitsuba leaf.

March Into Merivale 2010 Launch Party

Yes, March Into Merivale is back! And it kicked off with a bang last week with the inaugural launch party held at The Ivy. I was lucky enough to be invited to a preview of the event before the doors opened to the public.

The Pool Club

We went up to the Pool Club for some drinks and were very well looked after by Renee and Debbie from Merivale, before we went downstairs to the Ivy Room to check out the chefs in action!

Nobuyuki Ura, head chef of sushi e, preparing sushi for the launch party

It was great to watch the Merivale chefs prepping their canapés and plating them up right in front of our eyes. Lucky for us we got to sample some of the canapés before the masses were let in.